Westland Dreadnought

The Westland Dreadnought was an experimental single engined fixed wing monoplane designed as a mail plane to test the aerodynamic wing and fuselage ideas of the Russian inventor N. Woyevodsky. British manufacturer Westland Aircraft designed and built it for the Air Ministry, and only one aircraft was made. Its design was futuristic: a continuous aerofoil section ran over every part of the aircraft including the fuselage, there was no wing bracing, which was unusual for British aircraft of the time, and the all metal construction used drawn channelling with a skin of corrugated sheet panels. Although conceived as a twin engined type with a retractable undercarriage, it was fitted with a 450 horsepower Napier Lion II engine and a fixed undercarriage. On 9 May 1924 the pilot Arthur Keep took off for its first flight test, lost control at about 100 feet and crashed, suffering injuries that cost him both legs, and the design was abandoned.